At what age to pull chicks to handfeed?

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Wessel Gordon
Posts: 408
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 12:02 pm
Location: South Africa
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At what age to pull chicks to handfeed?

Post by Wessel Gordon »

Hi everyone

My breeding female is sitting on a clutch of eggs that's due to hatch any day. Last year she hatched two chicks but stopped feeding them after about 10 days, unfortunately I intervened too late to save them. To prevent that from happening again I'm planning to handraise the new batch; my question is: what's the optimal age to remove them from the nest?

I have handreared several IRN's in the past so I know I'm in for a very messy, time-consuming endeavor. Those I handreared was always from other breeders so I'm not sure at exactly what age they were removed from the nests.

Wessel
InTheAir
Posts: 2040
Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 4:24 pm

Re: At what age to pull chicks to handfeed?

Post by InTheAir »

Hey,

I don't breed birds so have no experience myself, but I have read and studied a fair bit. One thing I learned from an animal behaviour course recently is that birds can learn to be good parents by practice. There is a good chance she will do better this year if left to it.
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